A Chance of Doubt
by WildRelapsedCreature
Summary: When Kelly Blake is given the opportunity to work with the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, you can be sure as hell that she'll jump for that chance. But working the case she's given, she goes along doubting her decisions and actions. Will this cost her more than she's willing to admit? -Rated T for swearing and violence-
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew. I only own Kelly Blake and any other character that doesn't seem familiar. Any of the story line that seems familiar, I most likely do not own.**

A small, petite woman rushed down the street. She was trying her best to get to where she needed as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, she had a small reputation of being late to things. Despite trying to be as early as possible, she almost always ended up getting distracted.

The small woman was about 5 foot. She had chocolate, straight brown hair that reached to her waist. Her eyes were a soft hazel color. She found the building she was supposed to be at and walked in. The front desk lady looked up and chuckled when she saw the flustered woman.

"Room 224. They haven't started yet. You're in luck, one other hasn't shown yet either." she called.

"Thanks Grace!"

The woman got into the elevator and played with her hands. She had ADHD. That was part of the reason she got distracted so easily. That's why her career choice of becoming a detective was such a good one for her. She was able to move around quite frequently. And when she was stuck at a desk, she almost always had company.

Nervously entering the room, she avoided her boss' gaze as she hurriedly sat down next to her oldest friend, Nancy Drew. A few of the other detectives who knew who she was chuckled under their breath.

"Hey Nan. You guys haven't started yet right?" she whispered.

"No. Everyone got silent when you walked in. We're waiting for Mr. Hardy." Nancy replied.

Slowly the other conversations started up again. The girl eased into a comfortable conversation with Nancy.

"Are the boys coming?" she asked.

"I'm not sure. I do hope so." Nancy answered.

"You want to see Frank don't you?"

"Shut up. You're just as bad."

"I barely know them. You, on the other hand."

Nancy just rolled her eyes.

"Kelly Blake! I just about thought that'd you'd never show!" a man stood in front of Kelly and Nancy.

"Hello, James."

"How's your dad doing?"

"Fine. He's debating going into business with Fenton Hardy."

"Very nice. I'll see you around!"

Nancy turned to Kelly.

"You never did tell me how you came to know him."

"Oh he used to work for my father. He's like an uncle to me. He's great." Kelly grinned.

Nancy and Kelly continued to chat. The door to the room opened. Like when Kelly walked in, the group got quiet as they waited to see who would enter. Kelly rolled her eyes as Nancy quickly looked away from Frank Hardy's gaze.

"You're like a middle schooler." Kelly whispered.

"Shut up." Nancy hissed back.

Kelly laughed under her breath as she watched Fenton and Joe Hardy follow behind Frank. Frank sat himself down besides her. Kelly lightly elbowed Nancy in the side. Nancy glared at her as Joe and Fenton took a seat next to Frank.

"Alright! Well now that everyone's here, we shall get started. If you don't know me, my name is George Blake. I run the company here."

Kelly sighed as George Blake talked on. He was, in fact, related to her. He was her uncle. Her father was overseas. He was doing a job in France. She hated it when he left because every single time, George took over. He was completely against Kelly becoming an investigator. Her father was all for it. George was a business man. And in a business that could get dirty, women weren't supposed to be apart of it. He wanted Kelly to marry young and become a perfect housewife. Her mother died during child birth. Kelly was the only thing left of her mother.

"Kelly!" she looked up.

"Yes?" she asked, looking annoyed at George.

"If you would kindly pay attention and stop your lollygagging, then we could get right on to what we're discussing."

"With all do respect, why does it matter if I'm the only one who absolutely has to pay attention to every tiny detail?"

"It would do you best not to talk back to your elders."

Kelly crossed her arms and lazily motioned for him to continue. George huffed and began his speech again.

Paying attention was almost physically impossible for her. She had bad ADHD. Sitting still was something she just couldn't do. Her uncle knew it too.

He took every chance he got to poke at her about it. If there was something for a detective to do, she defiantly wouldn't be the first one called. His excuse was that she was too jumpy and hyper. She was a kid.

Kelly was twenty one. She was no longer a kid. Just because she was short, that didn't make her a kid. Kelly started to fiddle with her hair. After a long, boring hour, the presentation began to come to a close.

"Any other questions?"

All heads shook no.

"Alright! Thank you for coming! Kelly, come see me in my office."

George left the room. Kelly groaned and stood up.

"Good luck." Nancy called.

"Thanks." Kelly mumbled, "I'll need it."

The petite girl made her way down the hall to her uncle's office. Well, her father's office. Kelly went up to the heavy wood door and knocked twice.

"Enter." a voice called.

Kelly shoved the door open. What she saw shocked her.

"Daddy!"

The twenty one year old was suddenly a child again. Just for that moment. She ran up and gripped her father into a hug.

"How was your trip? Did things go well? Oh do tell me everything!"

"I will in due time. Until then, as you know, I have been looking into going into business with Fenton Hardy. We agreed that you and his boys would work a case together. Nancy can join you too. But this joint case shouldn't be your usual thrill seeker. I know you work well with Nancy, but I want to see about the boys. You up for this?"

"Yes! Thank you father."

"Run along now. I need to have a chat with your uncle."

Kelly skipped out of the room to go find Nancy.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew. I only own Kelly Blake and any other character that doesn't seem familiar. Any of the story line that seems familiar, I most likely do not own.**

Kelly found Nancy and excitedly told her the news. Nancy smiled at her reaction, knowing the planned investigation already. Joe and Frank were standing off to the side, Joe smiling at the petite woman.

"I think she found out." Joe commented.

"I do agree dear brother." Frank grinned.

"She looks quite excited."

"She does."

Nancy and Kelly began to make their way over to the Hardy brothers. Kelly was trying to contain her happiness about being on a team case. She was usually by herself. There was nothing wrong with it, but the more minds put together, the easier it was to solve an especially hard case. She wasn't usually on them because of her uncle. He didn't trust her. At all.

"Alright, so we're headed to Pennsylvania then." Nancy announced.

"Meet at airport tonight then?" Kelly asked.

The Hardy boys and Nancy agreed. Kelly left for home. She got out her duffle bag and threw in a couple pairs of clothes. She stuffed in her make up bag and toiletries. Picking up her black notebook and sketchbook, she put them into her carryon bag.

"Anything that I'm missing?" she mumbled to herself.

Going through her mental checklist, she threw some pencils and books into her backpack. She put a pair of pretty flats and a dress into her duffle bag just in case. She put her hair into a ponytail and put on a loose shirt and jeans. She made sure her mother's charm bracelet and dragon necklace were both clasped in their spots. Nodding her head, Kelly made sure everything in her apartment was in its proper place before she locked the front door and was on her way. She got into the taxi that her father had called for the four of them.

"Airport please."

The taxi driver took her to the airport. On the drive there, Kelly thought over the case. Girls had been going missing. Girls of all ages, just gone. No one knew what happened to them. The police were stumped, so they asked Kelly's father for help. When her mother was alive, they actually used to live in Pennsylvania. It was Kelly's old house that they were going to stay in. She hadn't been there in forever. Chills went down her spine, thinking about her late mom.

"We're here ma'am."

"Oh. Thank you."

Kelly paid the cab driver and went into the airport. She checked her bag in and headed to the gate. She looked around and saw Nancy sitting with the Hardys.

"Hey Nancy!"

"Hey! Cutting it a bit close aren't we?" Nancy teased.

"I'm here! I'm not late!"

"For once."

Kelly stuck her tongue out at Nancy.

"Real mature Kel."

Kelly laughed and sat down across from the Hardy boys. She began thinking over the case again. She processed what had happened and thought of anything that could possibly help the out. There wasn't anything that particularly stood out that she could think of currently.

"Flight to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania now boarding."

"That's us." Frank announced.

Kelly stood and grabbed her carry on bag. She was sitting next to Nancy on the plane. They got seated and waited for take off.

"Kel, we just got to the airport! You're going over this before even I am. Relax. We'll get this worked out and solved. We always do when we work individually. Together will be no different." Nancy scolded.

"I know Nan. I just feel so bad for those girls and their families. How must they feel right now?" Kelly sighed.

"Yeah. I get it."

The plane took off and Nancy and Kelly fell into a comfortable silence. About halfway into the plane journey, Nancy ended up drifting off. Kelly pulled out a book to read, just passing the time. Frank and Joe had fallen asleep as well. She was sitting in the aisle seat when someone pushed past the seats. He jostled her arm and she looked up out of annoyance. He looked glassy eyed. She stared at him curiously. He continued to stumble his way down the aisle.

Kelly shook her head and tried to go back to her book. But her head was swirling with thoughts.

 _Was he drunk?_

 _Air sick?_

 _Why were his eyes glassy?_

 _Somethings wrong..._

The seat belt light came on and the plane began its descent into Pennsylvania before Kelly could go investigate.

 _I'll look for him after we land._

She decided in her head. It didn't occur to her to wake Nancy and tell her or the Hardy boys. The plane finally made its landing so Kelly stood up with her carry on, intent on finding the glassy eyed man. She saw someone in a zipped brown jacket and followed, noting from earlier that that's what the man had been wearing. The guy picked up his pace and Kelly matched it. She lost him. Sighing, she started to think over the man.

"Kelly!" someone yelled.

She turned to the boys and Nancy rushing towards her.

"Why'd you run off like that?" Joe asked.

"There was this man on the plane. It was so strange. He stumbled around like he was drunk. His eyes were glassy and he didn't look like he was all there. So, I followed him. But I lost him in the crowd." she huffed.

"I'm pretty sure it was just someone that was having a bad day." Frank tried to reassure her.

"Yeah. Maybe. Let's just get to the hotel and get this show on the road."

The quartet left the airport in a taxi. Kelly's head was spinning with possibilities. Eventually after getting to the hotel, all thoughts towards the glassy eyed man diminished.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own the Hardy Boys or Nancy Drew. I only own Kelly Blake and any other character that doesn't seem familiar. Any of the story line that seems familiar, I most likely do not own.**

The hotel the quartet was staying in was only for the night. Kelly's old house was located in Scranton, so they decided that they'd rest up at the hotel and then leave for the house in the morning. Kelly was really anxious about going back there. The last time she was there, her mom had still been alive. It gave her mixed feelings about the case. They finally made it to their hotel room, a double bed, and a pull out couch.

"I call the couch!" Kelly yelled, excited to test out the pull out bed.

"Have fun sleeping on rocks tonight." Nancy teased.

"You know, I will laugh at you if the pull out couch is more comfortable than the actual beds."

"Don't remind me of that."

"That was the greatest day ever."

"What happened?" Frank mused, Joe nodded in agreement with the question.

"Well Nancy and I were working a case and we had just gotten back to the hotel room. She claimed the bed, we only had a single bed and a pull out couch, so I took the couch. Turns out the pull out couch had just been replaced and the bed on it was nicer than the actual hotel room beds."

Kelly had a wide grin of amusement on her face from retelling one of her memories.

"Anyways!" Nancy changed the subject, "We need to plan what we're going to do for this case."

"Well," Kelly got serious, "I can almost guarantee that we'll have to have a stakeout eventually because of the debriefing that was in the files."

"What do you mean?" Joe asked, confused.

"Did you read the packet we got?"

He shook his head.

"Did any of you?"

All three heads shook no.

"Hopeless. All three of you."

"Hey!" Nancy feebly protested.

"Anyways, according to the debriefing packet, all of the girls had one thing in common when they went missing. They were all in a certain area before they disappeared. The last known appearances were all in the same section of downtown Scranton."

"How big is this area we're talking about?" Joe questioned.

"Uhh... fifteen, twenty miles. Give or take..."

Nancy, Frank and Joe all visibly and openly groaned at the information. The more ground to cover, the further spread out they'd have to be.

"Well, considering we'll have to get up quite early tomorrow to make it to the house in Scranton so we can really dive into our investigation, I'm going to make myself a little nest on the pull out couch and go to bed."

"Alright. Good night Kels." Nancy began.

"Good night." Frank was next.

"Sweet dreams." Joe finished.

Kelly started her task of actually getting the pull out couch out into the bed. Although she's quite tiny, she managed to get the huge bed out and in position.

"Tiny but mighty." Kelly murmured, chuckling slightly.

She found the blankets and sheets and started to dress the bed. She was very OCD about things like that, and this task was no different. Finally satisfied with her work, she dug through her bag to find some PJ pants. Once accomplished, Kelly went to the bathroom to change and brush her teeth. Sleepily dragging her feet, she flopped in the couch bed and immediately curled up under the covers, sleep already clouding her vision.

Meanwhile, Frank, Nancy, and Joe were sitting at the little dining room table discussing the investigation.

"Kelly was right on the stakeout." Nancy informed, studied the space on the map that Kelly had marked.

"Unfortunately." Frank sighed.

"She's usually right or at least very close to it. It gets quite annoying at times."

"I can imagine." Joe mused, thinking about the short, fiery brunette.

The three detectives turned slightly to look at the lump that was Kelly, snuggled under the covers. Nancy's eyes softened at the woman. She had a rough time when her dad wasn't at the agency. Her uncle was a horrible man, and Nancy knew it too. Kelly acted like it didn't bother her, but Nancy knew better. Kelly's mom had died when she was a little girl, she didn't remember her very well. Her father, stricken with grief, had left his only child with his brother for two years while he tried to cure himself of his pain.

George Blake, for whatever reason, hated Kelly.

He tried to do whatever he could to bring her down. To quit being a detective like her father.

"Anyways," Nancy shook her head to dismiss further thoughts, "We need to work on our plan."

The trio started to debate on the best way to cover all of the ground they needed to scout. Within their area they were scouting, there were multiple buildings and warehouses that would have to be looked over as well. Tomorrow was going to be a long day.


End file.
